Words from a father: 'Paint the clouds with sunshine'

5:37 PM,
Apr. 12, 2014

Written by

JJ Abernathy
Music Times

A song from the 1920s, "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine," keeps dancing in my head and connecting me to my earliest childhood. I hear it being sung by an optimistic father, now gone, who at times in his life experienced more trials and adversity than he deserved. Yet he always had a song to lift his spirits and the spirits of those around him.

It was his birthday yesterday, and as I think of him, I can still hear him singing.

First introduced in the film "The Gold Diggers of Broadway," the lyrics suggest a timeless approach to conquering life's challenges by comparing life to a play that still "must ...